Welcome to

The Oliver Y-DNA Genealogy Home Page

NOTICE: This page is a work in progress and will change frequently. Please check back often.

I've been researching my western Kentucky Olivers since about 1969.
They were a part of a mass Oliver migration from Maryland into northern
VA beginning in 1786 and from the Fauquier/Prince William County of VA
area into KY beginning around 1805. When I heard about the utility of
Y-DNA testing in genealogy, I decided to create an Oliver Y-DNA Surname
Project that would serve several purposes. One would be to learn
something more about the ancestry of the Fauquier County Olivers to
supplement conventional records-based genealogical research. Another
and far more important purpose would be to group many of the other
Oliver lines in America in the late 1700s using Y-DNA.

The success of the larger purpose of this project will be attained
only if we can attract a large set of participants whose Oliver lines
are reasonably well documented. I urge you to contact any/all Oliver
researchers you've had contact with and refer them to this page and/or
to me.

For more information about participating in the project, please click
here

DISCLAIMER: I have no connection with or financial interest in Family Tree DNA, the company chosen to conduct the Y-DNA testing.

Understanding the results of Y-DNA testing within the context of
genealogy is not easy because it involves a knowledge of both genetics
and statistics that most of us don't have. Fortunately, there are folks
out there who understand both and are genealogists as well. The best of
both worlds! Immediately below are URLs where you can find more
information than you want or need. I would urge that you visit these
sites and read a little. Please *don't* be intimidated by all the
jargon and details. I'd suggest that you go to the tutorial site first.
Read as much as you can and then scroll down to see the results to date
for the Oliver Project.

Results as of 9 June, 2009 are shown below. We have 109
participants who have ordered kits, with 105 returned for analysis so
far. Several others have indicated they plan to order test kits, and
there are several upgrades in progress.

As results for the kits arrive, they are compared to the
others. When the results match well enough to suggest a common Oliver
ancestor, they are given the same color and are grouped together.
Conventional genealogical research must be used to identify that common
ancestor.

It is extremely important to understand that the test results
reflect the Y-DNA of the persons tested and may differ from the oldest
known ancestor if a mutation has occurred anywhere in the line of
descent from that ancestor. Examples of this appear below.

The first fourteen rows (blue) of the results table represent
descendents of an extended Oliver family shown by conventional
genealogical research (CGR) and verified by Y-DNA to have been closely
related as far back as pre-Revolutionary War. This extended family
moved almost as a community from MD to northern VA to western KY
beginning in about 1786. These results show that all those tested
descend from a common ancestor who lived before 1740. There is only one
true branching mutation and that is the father-son pair having a value
of 15 at 385a. All other mutations are the expected random ones to be
expected with this many testees representing so many generations.
Several of these men have up-graded their tests to 67 markers and a
couple to 72 markers.

If you look at the chart below, you'll see that we now have a
total of 10 clusters of matches that are close enough to declare a
family, at least tentatively. Future results, as they trickle in, may
force changes.

I have had a request to explain how to read the chart so this is
my first attempt. There will undoubtedly refinements in the future.
First, let me say that I do all my HTML coding by hand and I'm not
skilled at it. This means that I am restricted in what I can do in
order to present the most information in the least amount of space. I
do not accept GEDCOM files and I do not link to outside data files.
Secondly, I can only present simple data that I am provided. If folks
elect not to provide information, I can't post it.

Column 1: Kit. Kit numbers are assigned by testing companies
according their own scheme. Those that are pure numbers were assigned
by FTDNA. Those that are preceded by an N were tested by the
IBM-National Geographic Association Program and transferred to this
project at the request of the tested person. You may see other Kit
number formats in the future as people tested by other companies join
the project.

Column 2: Oliver Lines. The given name is the most distant (in
time) known Oliver ancestor, followed by either the date and/or
location of his birth, followed by the given name of his son through
which the Kit owner is descended. If more than one state is given, it
means he moved. Example: Kit 20662 belongs to a man descended from
Thomas Oliver born 1816 VA through his son Charles C. Oliver. Kit 34298
belongs to a man descended from the same Thomas but through a different
son, Thomas Jr. In this case, we don't know to a certainty who was the
father of Thomas. Kits 26546, 24939, 13296, 28624, and 23701 all
represent descendents of Levi L. Oliver born 1806 VA through his son
Jasper Newton Oliver who had sons Levi and Roy and so forth.
Occasionally there may be exceptions, as in the case of Kit 39629 where
the named individual was not an Oliver by name but who clearly shared a
common Oliver ancestor. Please note that some names are linked to
another page on my server where more information is presented. Also
note that several people have declined to provide any information
regarding their Oliver ancestry.

Column 3: Haplogroup. They describe different branches of
mankind i. e. R, I E, etc. At the moment Haplogroup research is intense
so the nomenclature is evolving. Most research is being driven by
population geneticists who would like to be able to track human
migrations over thousands of years and different continents.
Haplogroups can be estimated by testing companies fairly accurately but
can only be proven by specific tests such as a positive result for test
M253 or M40. In general Haplogroup information has very little utility
in genealogy research although I expect that to change in the next few
years.

Columns 4 through 75: DYS#. The measured values of each tested
marker represent the Y-DNA signature or haplotype of each test kit.
There is a very small but finite possibility that a marker value will
change slightly at every generation and some markers have been observed
to mutate more frequently than others. By comparing haplotypes, we can
usually determine if two men share a common ancestor PROVIDED enough
markers are tested. Testing companies (and my experience as a project
administrator) indicate that a minimum of 25 markers and often 37
markers are required for high confidence determinations.

The Haplogroups listed in black above were "assigned" by
FamilyTreeDNA and have not been confirmed by additional testing. Those
in red have been confirmed by independent testing.

FamilyTreeDNA comment: "It is obvious from our observation of 1000's
of samples that some markers change or mutate at a faster rate than
others. While that actual 'faster rate' has not yet been definitively
calculated, not all markers should be treated the same for evaluation
purposes. The markers in red have shown a faster mutation rate then the
average, and therefore these markers are very helpful at splitting
lineages into sub sets, or branches, within your family tree. Explained
another way, if you match exactly on all of the markers except for one
or a few of the markers we have determined mutate more quickly, then
despite the mutation this mismatch only slightly decreases the
probability of two people in your surname group who match 11/12 or even
23/25 of not sharing a recent common ancestor."